


Pebble flies again

by Beryll (Rynthjan)



Series: Sir Yaden [9]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M, Pandora - Freeform, Pebble, Psychics, phoenix empire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-17
Updated: 2013-04-17
Packaged: 2017-12-08 18:14:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/764463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rynthjan/pseuds/Beryll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the knockout he suffered in his encounter with the N'Bosoti artefact, Sir Yaden feels that he needs much more training, training which he can only do in space where he can't hurt innocent bystanders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pebble flies again

I should have known Yaden was up to something.

Ever since he was a little kid, he got those days when he just stared into the air with that certain look. Not that frowny stare when there was a storm brewing, or that empty one when he had a headache so hard it made him feel stupid. No, there was a certain dreamy look on his face that he had when he pondered something nice, and maybe a little daring.

It had been a long time since I had seen the look on my boy's face, and it took me a few days to remember what it was I kept seeing when he thought nobody was looking.

Yaden was planning something.

So when I heard the rumbling noise of moving rock, I just couldn't help myself. I put down the correspondence I was sifting through and went outside to see what Yaden was doing this time.

From the sound of it, he was way up in the north of the island, even beyond the servant cottages, so I took up a brisk walk from the manor where I had established my little office and walked up the narrow path that led to the place where Yaden and his rapidly growing family lived.

On my way there, I passed the beach my boy had made only a few weeks ago, the morning after we all moved here. I had heard the gentle rumble in the night, but thought he was just training again. When the sun rose, the island suddenly had a beautiful lagoon with its own, brilliantly white beach. Yaden was working so hard, trying to make this a perfect home for all of us.

And now I just had to know what he was doing up there.

Up at the old servants' quarters, I could feel it in the ground, the occasional rumble and jitter under my feet. But it felt different this time, cautious, hesitant even. What in all the Empire was he doing up there?

Following an even narrower path up through the weedy bushes and palm trees, I found Yaden so deep in concentration that he didn't even notice me approaching. He had flattened a wide area of the island, more than a hundred feet in each direction, and was now pacing the edges with a frown on his face. Even from where I was standing, I could see him biting his lower lip, as he always did when doing his math homework. Whatever it was, apparently it demanded careful calculations from him.

Seizing the unique occasion, I took my time just standing there among the wild rosemary shrubs, watching him pace the area he had so carefully prepared. What was he building, I wondered again? A football field? Surely not this far away from the house, and there would have been areas closer to the mansion much better suited. A landing field? But the mansion had a perfectly serviceable landing pad for a small glider or even two. This would be much too large for gliders...

Suddenly, memory struck me like lightening.

There was only one item that Yaden always measured in steps instead of meters, and it would warrant a spot as large as this. The Pebble. He was planning on freeing the Pebble out of her prison and bringing her back into duty.

My heart raced with emotions. I still remembered the little, shy boy who was so worried about everything. The boy who had fled inside the Pebble, dreaming of one day maybe being strong enough to free her. And suddenly, that day had come. Damn, they grow up so quickly.

Slowly, forcing myself consciously not to run, I walked onto the future landing field and up to Yaden who was still staring down the cliff at the far end with a worried expression.

"Hey," I said softly, hoping not to startle him too much. "What's wrong?"

"There's not enough room," he replied, still chewing his lower lip. "I don't want to push everything closer to the house, that would look stupid. But I don't want to add the missing paces here on the cliff. It looks so nice and natural, I don't think I could make it look like that again."

"You're making a landing pad for the Pebble, aren't you?"

Yaden turned around and looked at me, his eyes shining. "I think I am strong enough now, and I need her. I need to go places where I can move big things without hurting someone if I want to train, and that means I need a ship of my own. Can't do big things down here with all the people around."

"But you realize that your paces are longer now, don't you?"

For a long moment, Yaden just stared at me, completely clueless.

"Let me guess," I started, "this field is sixty-something of your paces?"

"Sixty-seven and a little bit. That's at least three paces less than I need to barely fit her in."

"But that's what I said." Quickly calculating, I explained: "Your legs are longer now. The Pebble needs only, like, fifty of your paces now."

Suddenly, his eyes widened with comprehension, and his frown was wiped away by a big, boyish grin. "But that means there IS already enough room!"

"That's what I'm saying. And that you are really old enough to measure things in meters."

Instead of an answer, Yaden just jumped with joy and then gave me a hug that would have crushed anyone of a less massive stature.

"I am so proud of you," I whispered into his embrace, silently hoping that he wouldn't notice how wet my eyes were becoming.

"Will you come with me, to Pandora, when I dig her out?" Yaden asked into our embrace.

"There's nothing I would rather do."

\---

To anyone else the uneven field of molten rock would have looked untouched and unchanged, but Yaden was so intimately familiar with this place, that every shifted stone, every move in the earth since he had last been here keenly registered with him.

He was relieved that no one had disturbed the Pebble's resting place since he had left Pandora two years ago. Not that anyone could have gotten to her without using major machinery or powers rivalling his own. Still he had always regretted leaving her behind when he went to P2 to become a Phoenix Knight.

His psionic senses easily found her and caressed her hull. He could feel her reaction to him, a sense of welcoming. The centuries in service to his family had given her a resonance with them. He had never really used his powers on her much, but the little had already increased that resonance. It made him wonder what would happen when he really started working with her. The thought of taking her out into space where she belonged, to use his powers to steer her was simply exhilarating.

"Is he actually going to do something or just stand there all day?"

The words had been meant to be a whisper, but out here on the open field they carried much wider than the speaker could have anticipated.

Yaden sighed.

This should have been a moment between him and Pebble and Darren. Not this media circus.

Once more he reminded himself that this was the price he had to pay for being a Phoenix Knight.

Behind him a veritable crowd was gathered. Some of them were welcome. Like Colin, Ivan and Myriam or his mother. Some of them were much less welcome. Like the host of journalist and the camera crew of the Phoenix Knight Tower PR team.

At least this time he was getting something valuable out of this show.

Darren had correctly pointed out to him that raising the Pebble from her stony tomb would not make her fly again. She very badly needed a complete overhauling at a spaceship yard. And that wasn't just necessary repairs but also a remodelling of her interior. She had been used as a blockade breaker in SWII and before that she had always been a military vessel as well. Now she would serve as his private ship so the crammed quarters should be exchanged for much more spacious ones and other amenities.

Such works would of course cost a small fortune which Yaden didn't have. But Darren hadn't just pointed out the problem; he had also had a solution. After all his Phoenix Knight duties would profit vastly from him having a spaceship of his own. So Darren had managed to talk the Phoenix Knight Tower into paying.

The trade off was that the PR team would be allowed to market the whole 'Pebble flies again' angle to their heart's content. Apparently the fact that one of the most famous ships of the Empire would fly again in service of a Phoenix Knight was a veritable marketing feast.

Their first demand had been that Yaden wait until at least three months after the wedding for a maximized impact on his popularity. At that Yaden had balked. He needed the Pebble now. She wasn't a fancy bauble to show off; he needed her to properly train. Luckily General Hamilton had intervened on his behalf before things had gotten truly ugly between him and the PR team.

So now he had to put up with them being here and pestering him with their stage whispers.

He forcefully centred his mind again on the task ahead and slowly raised his hands to get a better feel for the Pebble.

When he had pushed that giant ball of crunched up rock with the whole base and the N'Bosoti artefact inside down into the molten core of Nabuco he had known that he was ready to do this. He would have to be a lot more careful with his precious Pebble though, not to crush her in his grip.

The hardest part was deciding where he would cut her loose. Her armour had fused with the molten lava and he wanted to keep as much of that extra layer of armour as possible since it would make her much easier to control for him. And if he ever needed to renew her coat of armour he would just have to roll her in dust for a while to pick up extra layers.

That thought made him smirk. He was probably the only human being who would ever consider rolling his spaceship in dirt.

He had no clue how much extra weight the engines of the Pebble would be able to lift so he decided to err on the side of caution. He could always pack on more later when he had a better idea of how the Pebble reacted when in flight.

Carefully he started separating the dense rock around the ship, gradually releasing the firm hold the ground had on her. These grounds were so familiar to him that they reacted to his touch not with the stubborn resistance he had fought against on Nabuco, but obeyed him easily, flowing where he commanded like thick honey. Gently he started raising the Pebble to the surface, shifting rock around her.

Only when the thick crust of lava suddenly parted to release the cragged, rocky top of the Pebble did he remember again that he wasn't alone, as the gathered crowd behind him gasped in collective surprise. Apparently he had managed to work so gently they hadn't even noticed he was doing something.

He didn't allow that to distract him though. His full concentration was still on lifting his treasured ship free. She slowly lifted out of the ground, a misshapen, vaguely boxy lump of rock with very little metal showing.

It was plain beautiful how easily she fit into his hands. He had expected to expend quite some energy to hold her, but he effortlessly hovered her above the ground. His mind checked every part of her, stroking over the sturdy outer hull, caressing her equally sturdy interior. There was no fancy high tech in his Pebble. She was build to last.

Behind him the crowd started applauding, probably more for the cameras then for his actual effort or Pebble herself.

\--Sir, I'm locked on the Pebble, I can port her as soon as you give the 'go ahead'.-- the mental voice of Guild Central Prime came into his mind.

Since Pebble couldn't fly herself until she was repaired she would be ported straight to the shipyards in orbit of Guild Central.

Yaden once more mentally hugged his ship before he gave the Prime permission to port her. He was quite surprised when nothing happened.

\--Uh, sir…-- the somewhat chagrined voice of Guild Central Prime addressed him again moments later, --I'm afraid you will have to set her down, sir, your hold on her is too strong for us to get a grip.--

A fierce grin spread on Yaden's lips at this news. So no one would be able to port his precious ship without his consent. How entirely nice to know.

Gently he lowered Pebble to the ground and released his hold on her. Moments later she disappeared.

\--Thank you, sir, she has arrived safely.-- Guild Central Prime informed him courteously.

Yaden sent his own appreciation for the service back. Then he turned to the gathered crowd to be a good little Phoenix Knight and do some interviews with the waiting reporters.

\---

"A donkey? On a spaceship?!" The engineer's voice almost tilted with disbelief. But the huge wooden treadmill he was standing in front of DID look like it could be run with a donkey, or a few sturdy marines, at any time. "Please tell me you are joking, sir."

"I'm not. Even my grandfather always had a donkey on board in case the electricity broke down." Yaden was dead serious, though even he couldn't mind the poor engineers' confusion. "Look, to the right of the lift you can see the stables."

The Pebble was quite unique, after all, Colin noted once again with a wide smile.

They were on Guild Central, on one of the large wharfs of the Mojav Shipyards that had gained the contract of refurbishing the Pebble. At first, the Mojavs had tried to convince them that they wanted a full reconstruction with the latest tech and everything from whirlpools to gilded plates. Luckily Yaden had met the suggestions with an icy stare and ended the discussion swiftly. It had taken their hosts a moment to realize that he wouldn't be swayed by glossy flyers or names of celebrities who also had their yachts outfitted by the Mojavs, but in the end the junior boss himself had intervened. Antonio Mojav was a weasely young man full of energy, and he was admirably swift at changing gears. Within a few minutes only, he had gotten rid of the designers and lifestyle-advisors and had brought in a handful of grizzled engineers who didn't care the slightest about the latest trends but were all deeply excited to work on such a venerable legend as the Pebble.

And of course, they loved Yaden's idea of not really changing anything, but instead just to check if everything was still in working order and bit by bit get the ship fit for combat again.

Soon, they had decided that the meeting room was the wrong place entirely. The engineers needed a hands-on approach, and so they moved right into the Pebble, with Yaden manning the torchlight and giving them a guided tour of the place.

But already the treadmill in the cargo-bay seemed to be giving them a hard time. The Pebble had been build by Pandorans centuries ago, with the clear purpose to be as failsafe as possible. Not a single unnecessary part, each item as simple and smart as it can possibly be, and most of them triply redundant.

Colin had to smile at their bewildered expressions. He admittedly liked the Pebble in all its uncompromising sturdiness, unadorned and unfazed as it was. She would be a good home to Yaden on his travels, and she would protect him well.

"Come on, folks," Colin urged them on when the whole group clustered around the forge in the back of the cargo bay. "You will have weeks to marvel at the details. We want to get a rough feeling for the whole layout, now, so please stay together."

Yaden gave him a wide grin, nodding. He was so happy seeing his beloved Pebble finally getting her wings back, but he also agreed with Colin. "You've heard the boss," Yaden agreed firmly. "Come on, let's take the stairs."

Passing Colin on his way to the stairs, Yaden gave him a tiny kiss onto the cheek, his eyes sparkling. Then he took the lead, with Colin and the engineers in tow.

"Alright," he explained with the slightly warbling tone of a tour guide, "second level is hardly more than the gallery around the cargo bay, workshop and armory."

Behind him, Colin could hear the engineers mutter among themselves, talking about 'overweight material' and a lot of things Colin had no clue of.

"Third level is barracks, with the main engineering room forward."

"Can we have a look at engineering?" one of the engineers asked, naturally.

"On our way back down." Yaden explained. "We can't get there directly from here with the main beams in the way."

For almost half a minute, the engineers were silent, then one of them asked: "Sir, I am almost afraid to ask - main beams?"

"The big ceramsteel beams that hold the Pebble together - her skeleton." Clearly seeing that the engineers still had trouble understanding what he was talking about, Yaden walked back down half a level and searched for a certain panel on the wall. With a smile and a gesture of his hand, he lifted the thing out of its hinges, revealing a tightly packed wall of pipes and cables behind. Amid them, a five feet thick mass of ceramsteel passed from left to right, looking as if having been hand-wrought by titans inside a volcano.

"Holy shit," one of the engineers muttered. "All this weight... How does she even fly?"

"Barely," Yaden replied with an affectionate laugh. "Grandfather always said she flew like a thrown cobblestone."

"No shit." the engineer replied flatly, causing Yaden to laugh out once again.

"Can you see now why I like her so much?"

"I think it's pretty obvious, love." Colin replied. "Come on, let's see the rest of this rock."

They quickly passed through the barracks on the third level, which mainly consisted out of bunk-beds and showers. Even after all these years, there was a faint locker room smell in the air, scrawled notes and forgotten pin-ups and postcards reminding of the men and women who had lived here in SW II. It all felt so much like history that even the constantly chatting engineers fell into a respectful hush.

"Next floor - mess hall, infirmary and crew quarters." Yaden announced when they reached the fourth level.

Up here, there were traces of more recent visits everywhere. Colin smiled as he imagined little Yaden running around this place with his Grandfather, or later with Darren, snacking on chocolate bars and reading comic books, just like any boy of his age and not the saviour of his planet. The Pebble still hummed with those happy memories for Colin, and the more time he spent inside, the more he liked the ship.

Throwing a swift glance into the infirmary, Colin grimaced at the equipment. "Dear, this will need a complete overhaul," he insisted. At seeing Yaden's long face, he added: "I will not let you fly around with medtech from the last century. I can understand you want to change as little as possible. But you are risking your life each time you're on a mission, and you will NOT fly on a ship without a healing tank and such."

Peacefully, Yaden raised his hands, conceding with a smile. "No need to convince me, you are right about the tech. I would like to keep the look, if that's possible." He cast a questioning glance over to one of the engineers who stared at them unabashedly. "Is it?"

"Sorry? My mind is still stuck on the healing tank." the man replied apologetically. "Do you have any idea what these things cost?"

"I don't care," Colin answered firmly. "If the Emperor thinks that my husband is the right place to start pinching millas, he can discuss that with me."

"Uh - what about you just make a cost estimate, and we see if we end up within budget or not?" Yaden offered.

"That sounds like a good idea," the man replied, still warily eyeing Colin. People talking about the Emperor like that were usually quite deranged and possibly dangerous, and often both of it at the same time. "I just take your orders and you do the discussion part, yes?"

Colin harrumphed something unintelligible but vaguely consenting. "As we are speaking about non-negotiable items - where's the kitchen?"

"It's over here," Yaden said, already leading the way through the dark corridor and down to the left where they had come from. "At the other hand of the mess hall."

Colin followed him and tried not to get his hopes up too high. This had been a military vessel, after all, not a luxury cruiser. But what he found on the other side of the serving counter still made his heart sink.

"This is it?" he asked Yaden. "I mean, it's got a lot of space for this ship, I'll give it that. But it's only equipped for re-heating."

"Honey, they ate rations on these ships. NutriBars, even." Smiling indulgently, Yaden added: "We will have a proper kitchen built in. You should know me well enough to know that even I wouldn't want to be without a proper kitchen, even though I am only making breakfast these days."

"I... I had just hoped that I wouldn't have to ask."

"You feel bad for a kitchen but have no qualms challenging the Emperor over a healing tank? I love you."

"Love you, too, dear." Looking around, Colin added: "Shouldn't we gather up the engineers and show them the rest of the ship before we loose them all over the place?"

Following Colin's look, Yaden saw one of them all but crawling through some low service hatch, making excited noises and taking notes on a small device.

"I think we should," he confirmed. "Folks!" he yelled, "come on, tour is almost over. One last floor, then you can go and explore as much as you like!"

Slightly hesitant, the engineers gathered again and followed Yaden further up the staircase.

"Top level was always reserved for the brass, as Grandpa used to say," Yaden continued his exposition. "So there's the bridge to the right, with the captain's quarters and two briefing rooms, straight on there's the map room and the officers' quarters, and to the left there is more quarters and the officers' mess."

"Officers' mess..." Colin savoured the sound of the word. "Why does that sound vaguely naughty?"

Yaden laughed, pulling his husband in a close embrace. "Alright, guided tour is over! Have fun, ask me if you have any questions, right now I'll have to show my lover our new home."

His remark was met with polite laughter, and very swiftly, the engineers had disappeared in the dark corridors of the Pebble.

"We will have to remodel most of the rooms up here," Yaden started explaining while he gently pulled Colin along. "I mean, we will need rooms for Myriam and Ivan, and Darren of course."

"And our other children."

"Yes. All seven of them. At least."

"Goodness. Do I get a say in that number?"

"Not right now. And besides, I want a nest, too. For me and my husband."

"And your other seven husbands as well?" Colin asked with gentle mocking.

"No, just you. So far." Nudging Colin with the tip of his nose Yaden added: "I would never marry anyone you wouldn't want to marry, too."

"That is kind of reassuring." With a soft sigh, Colin leaned against Yaden's shoulder. "Is it weird that this already feels like home?"

"Not at all. Pebble is so happy to finally be of use again, and completely giddy at the thought of a family living here, at least some of the time. She loves children. And I think you feel a part of that."

"She's a friend of yours, of course she is nice." Laughing gently, Colin prodded his soon-to-be-husband. "Now come on, I bet you already know where our new bed is going to go, and where I will get that promised kitchen."

"What? No, we make the plan together..." Yaden tried feebly to convince him, but then gave up. "Is it that obvious that I have been planning this remodel since I was fourteen?"

"Hardly." Giving Yaden another kiss, Colin demanded: "Now tell me your plans. No need to dream alone, ever again."


End file.
